Bottom Line

Cayzu (whose Basic plan begins at $4 per user per month) does well in the cloud-based helpdesk arena but mainly with small businesses and startups. That's due not just to its low price but also its feature set, which lacks support for big-business capabilities, such as change and asset management, workflow automation, and advanced reporting. Still, Cayzu's strong third-party integration options make it a great tool for companies looking to strengthen their customer service presence. Still, its more limited overall features keep it behind the competition, especially our Editors' Choice winners in this category, HappyFox, Zoho Desk, and the enterprise-oriented Vivantio Pro.

Setup and Getting Started

Getting started with Cayzu is on par with similar products in this space, such as Mojo. Simply provide a primary name, email address, phone number, and then a name for the helpdesk to get the ball rolling. A system-generated email lets you get the administrator account configured, after which you're presented with a dashboard and a to-do list to continue setup. Each of the additional configuration steps are optional but they include items such as adding agents, configuring branding, and adding topics to the self-service portal.

One aspect of Cayzu that's slightly different from the other helpdesk tools we've tested is how branding is handled. Each additional brand or product you configure is treated as a completely separate instance of the app, with separate URLs, email addresses, and design elements. Each brand instance is still fully manageable from a single helpdesk view, however. This is an easy way to segregate your agents to handle tickets only for specific brands. You can also emphasize this separation further by using IP whitelisting.

Ticket Management

Cayzu offers several tools for efficiently handling common tasks, which can save customer service agents time and your business money. Tickets can be initiated through a web form, customer email, or even through social media such as direct messages (DMs) to your corporate Twitter account. The system will help you configure these social channels to properly route such requests so they don't overtake any social media marketing you might be doing. Once a ticket has been created, Cayzu can automatically route it to the proper group or individual by using Assignment Rules. These rules are created by using a single-page form. They can perform specific actions (i.e., assign to agent or set the group, status, or priority) based on a set of conditions (such as brand, product, or source).

Cayzu's helpdesk settings let you build and manage multiple custom forms for helpdesks that deal with numerous request types such as technical support, billing, or sales questions. Cayzu provides one-click tools in its user interface (UI) that admins can use to add custom text fields, drop-down lists, checkboxes, and more. Using these, you can quickly and easily build custom forms that match the specific needs of a particular product or service. These custom forms help ensure that the appropriate information is provided in order for the support staff to assist the customer. You can also define Quick Responses which let agents provide standard responses to common questions. The company also recently integrated the agent portal with the knowledge base so that agents can more quickly find useful resolution information.

Cayzu also offers a lot of features for managing difficult tickets on the fly. Customizable ticket fields aren't an ad hoc feature but they can help with handling difficult products or situations. The ability to split cases or merge conversations, however, can both happen as needed and can make handling unusual cases easier. Like Freshdesk and Freshservice, Cayzu offers agent collision, which lets you see when someone else is looking at the same ticket as you.

Standard automations, such as closing tickets when they're resolved or closing them when they have gone without a response from a customer for a specified period of time, can be enabled or disabled with a click. More complex automation actions are somewhat limited. The company has recently let clients use assignment rules in conjunction with custom fields to enhance automations. However, you're still not getting the same level of automation you'll find in tools such as Freshservice and HappyFox. For companies that can live within its standard automations, Cayzu will work well. But the purchaser should investigate that via the free trial before purchasing.

Customer Self-Service

Customer self-service is a key strength for Cayzu. The company offers support for multiple user portals, each of which can be configured for a different brand or product. User portals support ticket creation, FAQs, news, and knowledge base articles. Any of these options or categories can be disabled or hidden from the user portal. You can even configure who can submit tickets through the user portal, meaning whether users must be logged in, if the users or their companies must already be defined within the system, or even whether users can log in using their Facebook, Google, or LinkedIn accounts.

One additional feature that makes Cayzu's user portal a killer feature is its integration with Google Analytics (GA). The de facto standard for web analytics, GA can help you track which knowledge base articles are providing value to your customers and what areas need additional attention. And if you've got code-capable IT staffers on hand, Cayzu offers a Representational State Transfer (REST)-based helpdesk application programming interface (API) that lets you build data exchanges with other business analytics tools as well.

Reporting and Analytics

Cayzu offers upwards of a dozen canned reports, spanning everything from tracking your helpdesk workload to getting statistics about your FAQ utilization to viewing ticket submissions by contact or company. While each of these reports provides insights into key areas of your customer service business, Cayzu's reporting functionality does suffer from some limitations.

For example, there's no way to schedule a report to run automatically and only a few reports can be exported to Microsoft Excel. There's also no way to create your own reports showing the data that you choose; you're simply limited to the pre-defined set that Cayzu provides. For large organizations with advanced customer service and helpdesk needs, the lack of customizable reporting could be crucial. But for smaller operations, it's worth investigating Cayzu's reporting library because it probably has you covered. Most of the helpdesk services we've seen, including HappyFox and Mojo, lack custom reporting for just this reason so, again, Cayzu isn't alone in this regard.

Another area in which they're is not alone is in the ability to use Cayzu as an asset management platform in addition to its primary helpdesk mission. Another helpdesk tool that touts this ability is Jira Service Desk, but you should investigate specific capabilities carefully before choosing either product with asset management in mind. While Cayzu has an Asset Manager, it's still a tracking solution bolted onto a ticketing system. That may work for some but, if asset management is in some way critical to your operation, then be sure this type of implementation will work for you before buying. For its part, Cayzu offers a free evaluation period to make that easy.

Integrations and Extensions

In addition to integrating with GA, Cayzu supports a large selection of out-of-the-box integrations with popular business web apps, such as FreshBooks, Microsoft Skype, and Salesforce. These are all available for easy implementation right off the Cayzu website once you've configured your primary instance of the product (no coding required).

Cayzu also easily integrates with social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Integration with customer relationship management (CRM) solutions, including SugarCRM and Zoho CRM, and several chat options are also available. Cayzu can even leverage LogMeIn Rescue to remotely view your customer's desktop for improved troubleshooting.

For more advanced users, Cayzu does offer a REST API as do many of the other helpdesk contenders. Whether that adds any value to your business depends on how much customization your particular process requires. But the feature is available if you have the resources (meaning, code-capable IT staffers) to make use of it.

Pricing and Plans

Cayzu offers multiple plans. The Basic plan costs $4 per user per month (paid annually) and offers email and social ticket management, a basic knowledge base, and a web widget. The Team plan costs $9 per user per month and adds assignment rules, app integrations, time tracking, and custom branding. The Pro plan costs $19 per user per month and adds reporting, asset management, custom fields, Single Sign-On (SSO), and more. The Enterprise plan costs $29 per agent per month and adds a REST-based API, portal customization, and custom agent roles. The Enterprise Plus plan costs $39 per agent per month and includes IP whitelisting and a 99-percent uptime service level agreement (SLA).

Cayzu offers some key functionality over and above competing helpdesk management tools, notably around branding and customer self-service. But it also has some shortcomings, especially when it comes to automation and custom reporting. A key to deciding whether or not it's the right tool for your business is determining which features are most critical for your business. If providing self-service tools or handling multiple brands is key to your business, then Cayzu is a strong contender. On the other hand, the automation features Cayzu brings to the table don't quite match up with a tool such as HappyFox. Making those business decisions upfront is the first step, and you can start by visiting Cayzu's website for detailed product features and access to a trial version.

Cayzu

Bottom Line: Cayzu does well as a helpdesk platform aimed at smaller businesses and startups. It has a good set of features, strong third-party integration options, and a very nice price. But, if you're looking for more enterprise-oriented capabilities such as advanced reporting and automation, then you'll need to keep looking.